Anne Pickles‏ @AnnePickles on Twitter: "Evening Standard takes on a traditionalist editor - one who's there only until lunchtime. By 'eck, them were the days."

Tom Watson@tom_watson on Twitter: "The long hours and early starts that editing a paper like the Evening Standard requires are incompatible with the demands placed on MPs."

Patrick Wintour@patrickwintour on Twitter: "My recollection is my father never saw editing the London Evening Standard as a part-time job."

Andrew Neil @afneil on Twitter: "When made Editor of The Sunday Times I was criticised because I hadn't been an editor. Mr Osborne hasn't even been a journalist."

Tim Crook on the Charted Institute Of Journalists blog: "The role of editor in British journalism should remain the pinnacle of professional journalistic achievement. It needs to be respected as the goal, aspiration and dream of a career in journalism. It deploys political, social, and cultural power and the position usually commands significant rewards in terms of salary and reputation. The George Osborne and Evening Standard affair risks trivialising, mocking and compromising the vital role that professional journalistic media should have in our society. While it might be a boon to those sections in the Conservative Party who have an agenda in relation to Prime Minister Theresa May’s government, it is unlikely to bring many benefits to British journalism."

Guido Fawkes on his blog: "The editor one of the country’s highest circulating newspapers will now have a parliamentary vote on any further issues relating to press regulation. Osborne voted for the full implementation of the Leveson Inquiry. The whole point of Leveson was to stop politicians and newspaper editors becoming too close…"

Peter Preston in the Observer: "Osborne has nil relevant journalism experience. You might as well make Richard Littlejohn chancellor of the exchequer. No: George will pen a few words, front a few Lebedev cocktail parties and pocket a few hundred thousand pounds, burying the remains of a once glowing political career. The perfect PR symbol of our times: a fake newspaper editor."

Piers Morgan's advice for Osborne on MailOnline: "Remember, everyone on the Standard staff now probably hates you. They'll pretend not to, and do a lot of fake smiling as they constantly reassure you that having zero journalistic experience is absolutely no problem for the editor of their great newspaper. But behind your back, they'll be a seething hotbed of indignant fury and some of them will be absolutely desperate for you to fall flat on your face very quickly."

Marina Hyde in the Guardian: "One of the more questionable pleasures of the age has been to watch people who used to be journalists cocking up the country, and people who used to cock up the country becoming journalists."

A spokesperson for the Guardian: “Allegations that the Metropolitan police has accessed the email accounts of Guardian journalists are extremely concerning and we expect a full and thorough investigation into these claims.”

John Rentoul in the Independent on Michael Crick: "One of the crowning glories of the uncodified British constitution is called 'Michael Crick'. The holder of this post is essential to the functioning of democracy. His relentless reporting of Conservative election expenses bore fruit when the Electoral Commission fined the Tory party £70,000 and asked the Metropolitan Police to investigate whether a crime had been committed. Crick, who has been one of my heroes since he exposed the Militant tendency’s covert entryism in the Labour Party in 1984, has provided a textbook example of how free media is needed to make democracy work."

The Times [£] in a leader: "Companies such as Twitter, Facebook and Google routinely publish false news stories and hate speech. Their approach to removing this content has been lackadaisical at best. They try to abdicate responsibility by calling themselves “platforms”, when in fact they are publishers. No one is fooled."

MPs in a letter to the BBC accusing it of anti-Brexit bias, as reported by the Telegraph: “BBC bias can have a substantial effect on national debate. We fear that, by misrepresenting our country either as xenophobic or regretful of the Leave vote, the BBC will undermine our efforts to carve out a new, global role for this country."

Nick Robinson‏@bbcnickrobinson on Twitter: "Do not adjust your set. Normal service from the BBC means you will hear people you disagree with say things you don't like. (That's our job)."

About Me

I am a freelance journalist based in the UK and was deputy editor of Press Gazette, the journalists' magazine, from 1993 until 2006. I want to give an independent view on media matters.
You can contact me with stories, ideas and comments by email at jon.slattery369@btinternet.com You can also follow me on Twitter @jonslattery